According to a litigation statistics report issued by WebRecon LLC, consumer lawsuits alleging violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act increased by nearly 60% in September from the prior month. That increase “keeps it in line with the aggressive growth in recent years.”
FCRA filings increased 58.4% from 351 in August to 556 in September of this year. Year-to-date filings under the FCRA increased 13.5% from January to September of 2017.
WebRecon reports the following month-by-month FCRA litigation filings so far in 2017:
January 2017 – 418 filings
February 2017 – 256 filings
March 2017 – 406 filings
April 2017 – 266 filings
May 2017 – 378 filings
June 2017 – 386 filings
July 2017 – 302 filings
August 2017 – 351 filings
September 2017 – 556 filings
Surprisingly, year-to-date FCRA and TCPA filings are both down more than 6%. Last month, consumers filed putative class actions in 23.7% of FDCPA lawsuits, 18% of TCPA lawsuits, and 44.1% of FCRA lawsuits.
Troutman Sanders will continue to monitor these developments and provide further updates as they are available.